This thesis, by providing a deconstructive reading of the work of John McGahern and
Anne Enright, elucidates the way in which the place, position and representation of
women in modern Irish society is profoundly affected by personal, political, religious
and even legal societal forces. The project attempts to utilise the work of both authors
to access and reveal the ‘Real’ experience of Irish women, in particular emphasising
the impact of physical, emotional and metaphoric touch upon both their bodies and
minds.
By analysing the work of these writers through the lens of literary theorists
such as Julia Kristeva, Jacques Lacan, Luce Irigaray, Jacques Derrida, Hélène Cixous,
Michel Foucault and Louis Althusser, this work will attempt to chart the changing
perception of women and the lived female experience in modern Irish society from
the 1960s right up to the present day, elucidating both the covert methods by which
Irish women are currently repressed or silenced within society, and ...

"The soul has ears": Music and Movement in the Poetry of John Berryman
Berryman?s musical interest is consistently remarked on by readers of his work, but remains vastly understudied, though it touches almost every aspect of his poetic project. The poet?s obsession with ?hearing? was one that spilled across from one art form into another, and his musical enthusiasm expresses itself in a way that is all-pervasive. Berryman?s work represents a deep enquiry into the influence of music on the mind and body, as well as its impact on the structures of the poem. As early as The Dispossessed (1948), his first major publication, the song emerges as an emotional yet social medium, and the poet?s interest in the human voice as a form of musical embodiment remains a feature until his final posthumous collection, Delusions, Etc., published in 1972. In fact, all of Berryman?s major poetic works demonstrate a general, and associated, interest in musical personalities ? such as Beethove...

This thesis will attempt to set out the core elements of the dramatic theory of William
Butler Yeats. He had worked on this for many years, attempting to create a theatre in
which unity of Image on stage would lead to a sense of Unity of Being in the audience,
which, in turn, would lead to a form of Unity of Culture in society at large. The thesis
will examine the core disciplines and areas of epistemology which influenced Yeatsian
dramatic theory. Initially, it will look at his pagan or neo-pagan sensibility, as expressed
through his belonging to numerous magical societies, and his involvement indifferent
areas of pagan, occult and esoteric knowledge such as Freemasonry, Rosicrucianism,
Theosophy and The Golden Dawn. The second chapter will examine his reading of
German Philosophers and thinkers such as Arthur Schopenhauer, Friedrich Nietzsche and
Friedrich Schiller. It will also address the strong influences of different aspects of the
thinking of these philosophers on his dramati...

This project explores an understudied aspect of modern Irish Catholicism by examining the anticommunism
of the Irish Catholic Church in the period from 1945 to 1965, which marked the
early years of the Cold War. It looks in particular at Irish responses to Cold War events in
Europe. Irish Catholic responses to the Cold War in Asia and to Catholic anti-communism in the
United States, Canada and Australia are also examined. In a domestic context, the thesis explores
Catholic responses to Irelandâs communists, who were involved in the Irish Workersâ League
and the Communist Party of Northern Ireland for most of these years. Irish communists were
monitored by lay Catholic organisations and individual lay Catholics, as well as groups directly
formed by the hierarchy such as the Catholic Information Bureau and the Vigilance Committee.
The hierarchy also received intelligence on communism from state sources. The potential appeal
of the Connolly Association, a British-based Irish republ...

Despite the vast amount of research on translation in recent decades, the
issue of fictive dialogue has yet to gain prominence in the field. Viewed
from a monolingual perspective, dialogue is already problematic in that it
defies a concrete definition. It is written language, yet its function is to
represent oral discourse. From a translation perspective and beyond this
ontological conundrum, dialogue warrants consideration because it is a
crucial characterisation device. The illusion of communicative
immediacy that authors create by removing themselves as proxy not only
allows characters to interact with one another directly, but also allows
readers to observe the behaviour of characters without the intrusion of the
narrator, thus raising the issue of how characters perform their identity
through language. With this in mind, the overarching question this thesis
asks is the following: if the language characters use in dialogue changes,
as it must do in translation, how does this cha...

This dissertation examines a set of novels concerned with the history of slavery,
“coloured” identity and the politics of gender and sexuality in post-apartheid South Africa:
Achmat Dangor’s Bitter Fruit, Anne Landsman’s The Devil’s Chimney, Rayda Jacobs’s The Slave Book, and Zoë Wicomb’s Playing in the Light. Each writer’s engagement with the history of slavery highlights discursive and material continuities between the colonial, apartheid and post-apartheid eras. By investigating, or making visible, figures of anachronism, these novels qualify the celebratory rhetoric of the “new” nation by pointing to the continued challenges facing the democratic state, particularly in relation to the social position of “coloured” women.
In doing so, they challenge the narrative of progress implicit in the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which moves from the horror of the apartheid past to the multi-racial democracy of the “rainbow” nation. Representations of the female slave in...

In this study, I empirically examine the determinants of firms’ derivatives
usage. Theory suggests that market exposure, manager-shareholder agency
conflicts, and the threats of financial distress and underinvestment can all motivate
derivatives usage. Most previous studies attempt to test these ‘theories of optimal
derivatives usage’ empirically by regressing some measure of derivatives usage on
a range of accounting proxies for these firm attributes. I use a similar approach in
this study. However, since these theories do not discriminate between different
categories of derivatives - foreign currency (FX), interest rate (IR) and commodity
price (CP) - most previous studies examine either general derivatives usage or only
one of these categories of derivatives. Instead, I separately examine what motivates
firms’ binary (yes/no) decisions to use foreign currency (FX), interest rate (IR) and
commodity price (CP) derivatives. Furthermore, owing to a lack of accessible data,
most previ...

Since the beginning of the 21st century, aid donors, NGOs and development research
institutions have turned their focus to the question of how the quality of basic public
service delivery in developing countries can be improved. While it has become clear that
the most important factor in the improvement of services is tackling problems related to
the workforce that provides public services, it has not been easy to find effective ways to
improve the standards of, for example, health and education services by changing the
behaviour of public service providers.
One approach which has received a lot of attention, and is now being used worldwide, is
the use of ‘social accountability’. A myriad of social accountability approaches exist:
many focus on citizen-service provider dialogue, others encompass participatory planning
processes at district or even national level, or track how budgets are being spent. This
study examines a sub-section of social accountability practice, and focuses sp...

Fungal spoilage is the most common type of microbial spoilage in food leading to significant economical and health problems throughout the world. Fermentation by lactic acid bacteria (LAB) is one of the oldest and most economical methods of producing and preserving food. Thus, LAB can be seen as an interesting tool in the development of novel bio-preservatives for food industry. The overall objective of this study was to demonstrate, that LAB can be used as a natural way to improve the shelf-life and safety of a wide range of food products. In the first part of the thesis, 116 LAB isolates were screened for their antifungal activity against four Aspergillus and Penicillium spp. commonly found in food. Approximately 83% of them showed antifungal activity, but only 1% showed a broad range antifungal activity against all tested fungi. The second approach was to apply LAB antifungal strains in production of food products with extended shelf-life. L. reuteri R29 strain was identified as ...

Information and communications technology has radically
transformed many aspects of modern life. However, this is in
marked contrast to its impact on education, where disappointingly
educational technology has done little to transform our higher
education system. This is in spite of the emergence of the formal
role of educational technologist, the improved ICT infrastructure
and the evolving recognition of the importance of teaching and
learning within the sector. It is apparent that within a given
academic community there are many individually motivated
innovators i.e. those characterized by their willingness to
experiment with new approaches and embrace change. Whilst there
are also many who resist and avoid any possible alterations (or
interference) in how they teach their subject matter.
But what do we know of the characteristics and motivations of the
practitioners currently operating in the field of educational
technology? Indeed can we treat the domain of educational
technolo...

Background: The impact of emergency service work on the health and well-being of
personnel has been well documented in the literature. Despite this, however, very little
is known about the experiences of emergency service retirees and their Quality of Life
(QoL). Aims: The principal aim of this study was to assess the overall QoL and wellbeing
of retired emergency services (ambulance and fire) personnel. The specific
objectives of the study were to: (1) ascertain the possible long-term effects, on overall
QoL, of working in the emergency services; (2) explore the experiences and views of
retirees; and (3) to gather information on retirement policies and procedures for
emergency service personnel. Method: The study was conducted within a sequential
mixed methods framework, and incorporated three key stages. Stage One involved
interviews with key informants from emergency services (N=14) to investigate their
views around current retirement policies and procedures. Stage Two employed a...

Personal and collective memories of violence and warfare are part of broader discursive processes that are subject to constant reinterpretations and remediations from the perspective of the present. Engaging with the ‘postmemorial turn’, this thesis examines representations of the ‘Third Reich’ in contemporary German youth literature. Youth literature has been unduly neglected in German memory debates even though its contemporary readership exemplifies the postmemorial turn. Investigating the specific dynamics of postmemory in a broad corpus of texts and in dialogue with the broader socio-cultural context of Germany today, the thesis analyses how individual authors renegotiate the place of the ‘Third Reich’ in German cultural memory from a transnational perspective. The analysis of specifically postmemorial techniques of representation is filtered through four thematic lines of enquiry: firstly, persecution and deportation; secondly, German everyday life and National Socialist educa...

This thesis investigates and critiques the taxonomical criteria associated with Franz Schubert’s piano music for four hands. The classification of piano duets as salon music, with a utilitarian, pedagogical, perfunctory, and entertaining function, has resulted in the majority of these works being sidelined from serious scholarly enquiry. Indeed, the complex aesthetic of the early nineteenth-century salon has yet to be fully probed in relation to Schubert’s transformation of the piano duet medium. This thesis aims to firstly, expose the disparaging discourses regarding salon music which have manifested in the reception history of Schubert’s piano duet music, and secondly, to investigate Schubert’s unique ambition in this area. Schubert’s earliest innovations are evident in his decision to merge a typically solo piano genre – the fantasia – with the four-hand medium. It is such early ambitions which propelled the investigation into theories of genre: How does a category become establi...

This portfolio and commentary demonstrates the use of indeterminacy as a method for creating live music and theater performances. The included works draw from Dadaist and Surrealist collage, avant garde theater, contemporary art, and contemporary composition, and use code, networked media, and open performance systems to create scores and environments. These works deconstruct and reconstruct topics of psychology, communication, and motivation. Seeking a balance between control and chaos, fragmentation is used as a method of experimentation, allowing for chance, variation, and feedback between technologies and performers, creating what Umberto Eco termed ‘open works.’

THESIS 11450The ?slendingaso?gur, or Icelandic family sagas, represent a deeply introspective cultural endeavour, the exploration of a nation of strong-willed, independent, and occasionally destructive men and women as they attempted to navigate their complex society in the face of uncertainty and hardship. In a society initially devoid of central authority, the Commonwealth's ability to not only survive, but adapt over nearly four centuries, fascinated the sagamen and their audiences as much as it fascinates scholars and readers today. Focused on feud, its utility in preserving overall order balanced against its destructive potential, the ?slendingaso?gur raise and explore difficult questions regarding the relationship between individual and community, and of power and compromise. This study begins by considering the realities of law and arbitration within the independent Commonwealth, in the context of the intense competitive pressure among go?ar and large farmers both d...

The outcome of environmental education to solve the ecological crises by producing an environmentally sustainable society is uncertain. The marginalisation of environmental education in mainstream education, its precarious position within broader concepts of (environmental) sustainability and the lack of critical evaluation of current practices finds it characterised by anecdotal narratives. It is claimed that modernisation is leading to childrens growing (dis)connect with the natural environment and brings additional responsibility to the relationship between society and the natural environment. But does environmental education (re)connect children with the natural environment, and to what extent is it (in)effective?
Through a detailed examination of the evolution of environmental education in Ireland, this thesis makes an original contribution to the field of environmental education research while also offering useful insights for environmental education policy and practice. Qua...

This study is a feminist poststructuralist analysis of the Girl Effect informed by girls experiences at the 54th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW 54). Based on a series of in-depth qualitative interviews with eleven girl delegates, I interrogate the regulatory effects of the Girl Effect paradigm and examine the ways in which girls understand the invest in girls message. The Girl Effect logic, I suggest discursively (re)produces oppositional girlhoods and neoliberal girl power, which problematically displace girls human rights in favor of the missionary girl power logic (Sensoy and Marshall 2010). Using the tools of discursive deconstruction and voice-centered research (VCR), I investigate how girl delegates bring meaning to their political selves and girlhood(s); and reveal the normative and transformative (Taft 2010) possibilities for girls' political subjectivity and agency vis-Ã -vis the Girl Effect paradigm.

Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) is a well-established non-invasive
imaging technology capable of carrying out 3D high-resolution cross-sectional images
of the internal microstructure of examined material. However, almost all of these
systems are expensive, requiring the use of complex optical setups, expensive light
sources and complicated scanning of the sample under test. In addition, most of these
systems have not taken advantage of the competitively priced optical components
available at wavelength within the main optical communications band located in the
1550 nm region. A comparatively simple and inexpensive full-field OCT system (FFOCT),
based on a Superluminescent Diode (SLD) with an Erbium-Doped Fiber
Amplifier (EDFA) light source and anti-stokes imaging device was constructed, to
perform 3D cross-sectional imaging. This kind of inexpensive setup with moderate
resolution could be applicable in low-level biomedical and industrial diagnostics. This
work involves assembly, ...

This thesis analyses the cultural, social and political discourse in a range of Irish periodicals published during 1912. The Third Home Rule Bill was introduced to Parliament in 1912, and was intended to grant Ireland a separate Parliament and a level of independence unseen since before the Act of Union. The Irish press had long engaged in a process that W.T. Stead described as Government by Journalism, and the Bill provided an added impetus to debates in the periodicals. Discussion on a range of cultural and social topics would help forge Irish nationalism and prepare the way for an Irish parliament in the interim. A number of individuals expounded their cultural vision of a Home Rule Ireland through the press.
This thesis examines Irish periodicals as a public space of debate and interaction in relation to a range of topics. The first chapter examines the proponents and opponents of censorship and the vigilance movement of 1912. It examines the different ideologies that were appa...

<p>Intra-uterine growth restriction (IUGR) is defined as a failure of a fetus to achieve its expected weight for a given gestational age. These infants have increased mortality and morbidity rates compared to appropriately grown infants. Deficits in cognition, language and social functions may occur. StOOPs (Short-term Outcome Of PORTO study) is a national study incorporating brain imaging to investigate differences in brain development and organisation between two groups of IUGR infants; those with normal and abnormal antenatal Doppler measurements. Antenatal Doppler examination of blood flow in the umbilical artery is used to monitor pregnancies affected with IUGR.</p>
<p>Singleton infants without aneuploidy or congenital anomaly and with an estimated fetal weight < 10th centile were enrolled nationally. Prospective data of delivery and infant characteristics was collected. Non-sedated 3 Tesla MRI of brain was acquired at term corrected gestation. 34 IUGR infa...

Italian is one of the four national languages ââof Switzerland and, with German and French, its official language. Although protected by law, in the last two decades Italian in schools has suffered a number of attacks that highlighted the need for specific language policies and relative pedagogical implementation.
This project is located in the latter sphere of action and aims to fill a gap in the landscape of educational offers for teaching Italian in Switzerland. Following the paradigm of âgestaltungsorientierte Forschungâ, and more specifically the design-based research approach, this thesis examines the phases of conception, design, development, implementation and assessment of the web-based training 321via.ch â a learning platform conceived to develop Italian language skills at A1-B2 level on the one hand and interlinguistic and intercultural competences specific to the Swiss Italian reality on the other. The end result consists of a technical solution (a learning co...

There is an urgent need to develop alternatives to synthetic joint prosthesis to promote the regeneration of diseased osteoarthritic joints. Cell based therapies have shown promise for repairing cartilage and bone; however, existing approaches are designed to repair small focal defects, and are not suitable for treating large injuries or for regenerating osteoarthritic joints. The objective of this thesis was to bioprint cell laden constructs capable of recapitulating key aspects of limb development as implants for large bone defect healing and joint regeneration.
To this end, a novel biofabrication strategy for engineering whole bone organs was first developed by bioprinting hypertrophic cartilage templates with the capacity to undergo endochondral ossification following implantation in vivo. These soft cartilaginous templates could be mechanically reinforced with a network of co-printed polycaprolactone (PCL) microfibers, resulting in a dramatic increase in construct compressive ...